The bosses of Britain's largest companies are enjoying lavish pay rises despite the wobbly economic recovery, with most of the surge in rewards coming from long-term incentive schemes and gains from share options.

The chief executives of FTSE 100 companies have seen their pay surge by 55% in a year, according to a report released yesterday by research group Incomes Data Services (IDS), while across the top 350 listed companies, total board pay rose by an average of 45%.

The pay hikes were fuelled by huge increases in the value of long-term incentive schemes that top bosses are waiting to cash in – rocketing up by 73% to a total of £259m – as well as a 90% hike in share-option gains to £183m. Meanwhile, FTSE 100 chief executives received bonus payments averaging £701,512, a 34% increase on the previous year, while their basic pay edged up by 3.6%.

Steve Tatton, the editor of the report, said: "Incentive payments may have declined sharply in the face of a deep recession last year, but it appears that it only needs the mildest of economic recoveries for the payments to bounce back to the same levels they were at during the boom years.

"The size of the rebound in incentives for top company bosses poses some questions for remuneration committees about the design of their incentives. This time last year a number of companies actually reduced their bonus ceilings. Twelve months later, it appears as if these measures have been reversed, with around 40 companies reporting higher bonus-scheme maxima."

The research looked at company reports with year-ends falling between June 2009 and June 2010. During that period, the FTSE 100 rose by less than 20%.

The findings were greeted with fury by the unions. TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, asked: "Don't they know that this is meant to be austerity Britain?" Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, said: "Boardroom greed is alive and well". Meanwhile, business secretary Vince Cable reiterated that executive pay would be one of the issues he will be probing in a review of British business, announced this week.

However, Alistair Tebbit, a spokesman for the Institute of Directors, said the IDS report was misleading: "This survey ignores the wider picture. We believe that the majority of directors across the private sector have received a real terms cut in pay and bonuses this year. The FTSE 100 is not representative of the private sector. When Vince makes public statements on pay, it's important to recognise this fact."

IDS warned that the "business as usual" approach of FTSE remuneration committees, after such a short period of restraint, risked upsetting shareholders. The seemingly unstoppable rise in executive pay has already concerned investors, and earlier this year the Association of British Insurers, whose members own some 20% of British shares, wrote to the country's 350 largest listed companies asking for talks on executive pay and bonuses.

The ABI said it wants a "constructive dialogue" to deliver pay policies that promote long-term value, as its experience shows that current retention awards to main board directors "rarely work". The body has also called for investors to be consulted on bonus policy and added: "Shareholders discourage the payment of annual bonuses to main board directors when the business has suffered an exceptional negative event."

Between 2000 and 2010, the total pay awarded to the top executives at FTSE 100 companies has soared by more than 160%, according to IDS, while FTSE 250 bosses have enjoyed a 118% increase. During that time, the FTSE 100 has lost 19%, while the FTSE 250 has gained 68%.

Among the top earners identified by the IDS survey were Bart Becht, who runs consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser. He made £90m-plus last year as the company's share price increased by 30%. IDS also calculated that Tony Pidgley, boss of house builder Berkeley, enjoyed total earnings of £38.4m despite the company's shares falling by 17% over the period. Mick Davis of miner Xstrata was the third highest earner, pocketing £26.9m after a stellar year for the share price, which increased threefold. All three benefited from share options granted in previous years.